Cream Dill Sauce Recipe

Here's a simple cream dill sauce recipe that you can whip up to go with your next fish dinner. Made with crème fraiche and fresh dill weed, it is the perfect accompaniment to poached salmon.

You can make this dill sauce as your fish is cooking, or if you prefer, make it first and keep it warm on very low heat while you concentrate on perfecting your fish.

Be sure to use fresh dill weed to make this sauce. If you really can't find fresh dill, you can use freeze dried dill, but I wouldn't bother with dried. I don't know if you've ever noticed, but dried dill tastes just about like nothing.

As with most of the sauces you'll find on Easy French Food, I have not bothered to strain this dill sauce recipe, so it is a bit clumpy with shallots. If you want to go the extra French mile, you can strain it through a sieve before adding the second part of the fresh dill.

Here's an essential kitchen tool for all of you who are nutty about sauce making and are looking for smooth perfection. Note that it only makes sense to buy a high quality chiniose. The cheaper chinoises are known to be virtually useless, and you may as well use a fine meshed sieve instead.

Sauce à l'aneth

2 shallots, finely chopped
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup white wine
3 tablespoons chopped fresh dill, divided
1 cup crème fraîche
1 teaspoon Dijon style prepared mustard
salt and pepper

Melt the butter on low heat in a small sauce pan. Add the shallots and cook, stirring frequently, for five minutes. The shallots should not brown, otherwise they will turn hard and bitter.

Pour in the wine and add half of the chopped dill. Turn up the heat to medium and boil the liquid until about 1/4 cup remains.

Turn down the heat and stir in the crème fraîche and mustard. Warm through and season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir in the remaining dill just before serving.

Makes about 1 cup of sauce.

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French Menu Suggestion

If you would like to try making an entire French meal, I suggest starting with this lentil salad recipe that features warm Puy lentils and fresh goat cheese, then moving on to a main course of this poached salmon recipe topped, of course, with the cream dill sauce recipe given here, and ending with a simple recipe for baked apples called Les Pommes Bonne Femme in French.